"Survive the Fall: Exclusive First Look"

Long before Bethesda took the reins of the series and Walton Goggins donned ghoul make-up for his captivating role in the adapted TV show, Fallout was an isometric action RPG viewed from a bird's eye perspective. The upcoming Survive the Fall appears to draw inspiration from this classic style of wasteland exploration, at least based on the initial hours of gameplay I experienced. This post-apocalyptic survival tale builds upon the original Fallout's template—quite literally with its robust camp development system—and its squad-based combat and scavenging mechanics craft an experience that feels fresh, despite a somewhat static story presentation that doesn't fully showcase its personality.

I quickly grew fond of Survive the Fall's squad-based setup as I tackled tasks from its numerous quest-givers. Navigating your party of up to three survivors through the expansive national park that sets the stage for the story's beginning, you can manually search abandoned chests for chemical compounds or chop down trees for lumber. Alternatively, you can delegate these tasks to your AI companions with a simple button press, allowing you to focus on other activities. This division of labor feels more natural and speeds up the process of scavenging each settlement. However, the interface can become cluttered with button prompts when interactive elements are too closely packed together, though this issue was infrequent.

Combat in Survive the Fall is also team-oriented. Given the scarcity of rifle and shotgun ammunition in the early game, I prioritized stealth when confronting marauders and ghouls. Approaching enemy camps felt like navigating a careful stalk through Commandos: Origins—hiding in long grass, throwing stones to distract, crouch-walking around enemy vision cones, and silently taking them down before directing my squadmates to hide the bodies. The game offers satisfying environmental hazards to exploit, from explosive barrels to dangling cargo pallets that can be dropped on patrolling guards with a well-timed shot.

Survive the Fall - Preview Screens

14 ImagesClearing out clusters of cultists was satisfying, but when my cover was compromised, combat became somewhat cumbersome with a controller. Aiming with the laser sight was challenging, leading me to rely more on melee attacks and dodging to whittle down enemy health in close quarters. Thankfully, the ability to pause and direct my squadmates to focus on specific targets—similar to systems in Wasteland or Mutant Year Zero—helped manage encounters, especially against tougher cult leaders while I dealt with their support crew.

After a day of battling mutants and scavenging resources in the dangerous badlands, Survive the Fall transitions into a base-building management sim at your camp. Documents found in the world can be researched to earn knowledge points, which can then be invested in a comprehensive technology tree. This allows you to craft everything from bunk beds and kitchen areas to water filtration systems and an armory. Resources like timber can be turned into planks and used to construct frames for new structures such as plant boxes or gates to fend off nighttime raiders. Foraged herbs and meat from wolves and deer can be prepared into meals and packed for your next expedition. The depth of this system promises hours of engaging camp development in the full game.

Beyond my base, I discovered numerous intriguing areas to explore, from a crashed passenger plane transformed into an enemy fort to a farmstead teeming with Stasis-infected ghouls. Survive the Fall offers unique locales in every direction. However, the impressive detail in some areas, such as the luminescent mushroom clusters in the Mycorrhiza swamplands, was marred by a volatile framerate and occasional game-breaking bugs. These issues forced me to reload my save a few times during my session. With about a month until release, developer Angry Bulls Studio has time to optimize performance further.

Survive the Fall offers distinct locales in every direction you explore.“That timeframe might not be sufficient to implement voice acting, which is unfortunate because interacting with your squad and NPCs feels somewhat flat without it. While some characters, like the quirky Blooper who amusingly refers to the Stasis smog as "fart wind," provided a few laughs, most interactions primarily served to advance the next fetch quest rather than deeply engaging with the factions.

The bonds with characters may deepen throughout the full game, and we won't have to wait long to find out. Survive the Fall is set to launch on PC this May and is brimming with post-apocalyptic potential. If the developers can smooth out the existing rough edges in controls and performance, this could become a survival-based action RPG worthy of your hard-earned bottlecaps.